The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion

During the Age of Magic, which preceded the Age of Religion, humanity deemed itself capable of overcoming mortality through sorcery. This belief was gradually supplanted by the arrival of religion, which promised a “blissful eternity” (224) in the afterlife.

The gods of early religions were created in the likeness of man and were deemed mortal despite their superior powers. Frazer refers to the graves of the gods in ancient Greece and describes how the “bodies” of the Egyptian gods were mummified, reflecting the belief that the soul could only last eternally if the body were also preserved.

This chapter is divided into four sections. Frazer begins by stating that many tribes resort to killing their human gods as soon as they show any signs of decrepitude to prevent them from weakening through age. This custom stems the belief that the soul weakens with the dying body. If a community depends on the man-god for its prosperity and survival, disaster can be averted by “killing the man-god and transferring his soul, while yet in its prime, to a vigorous successor” (229).

The second section describes provides the ritual deaths of the Shilluk kings. If the king became unable to sexually satisfy his many wives, the wives could report this to the local chiefs.